Lieberman Software Explains How Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) Are Almost Impossible to Stop, But Damage Can be Limited with Privilege Management and Secure Network Design

(Los Angeles, CA – June 23, 2014) Given the reality of today's advanced persistent threats (APTs) and sophisticated nation-state cyber attacks, virtually all enterprises have already been breached. However, by controlling and hardening privileged credentials, an organization can deny intruders broad access inside the network and prevent them from covertly accessing and extracting sensitive information at will.

This real-world approach to securing enterprise networks in the face of APTs is the subject of Philip Lieberman’s presentation “Next Generation Technology Approaches to Manage Privileged Identities, Users and Applications” at this week’s Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit. The session will be held on Tuesday, June 24 at 2:45 p.m. ET in the Potomac C room of the Gaylord National in National Harbor, Md. Lieberman is the President and CEO of Lieberman Software Corporation, a Premier Sponsor at this event and an exhibitor in booth 325.

“Conventional detect and respond tools like firewalls and intrusion prevention systems (IPS) react too late to stop zero-day exploits launched by highly skilled, professional-level attackers,” Lieberman said. “IT security in most enterprises is analogous to a candy with a hard shell and a gooey interior. Today's attackers can break through the outer security – the shell – almost at will. Since interior security is so soft, full control over victims' networks can be obtained in a matter of minutes.”

“The reality of this porous perimeter is that we must assume that attacks will succeed and intrusions will occur,” he continued. “Therefore, IT departments need to ask - what happens after a machine is compromised, a key logger is loaded, and usernames and passwords are available to the criminals? How far into the network can the hackers reach, and for how long?”

Restrict Targeted Intrusions with Privilege Management

To defend against APTs and cyber criminals, organizations can implement automated privilege management solutions. Privilege management minimizes lateral motion of intruders inside the network, time-limits the value of privileged credentials, and controls the scope of access inside the IT environment to authorized and audited users with valid reasons for access.

“If you assume that one or more of your machines has become owned by an outsider - via a successful social engineering attack, for example - then privilege management is a proven active defense solution to limit how far the attacker can expand in the environment, and mitigate how long a captured credential can be exploited,” Lieberman said. “To complete the earlier analogy, privilege management replaces that gooey IT interior security by adding a consistent security texture all the way through the enterprise. In essence, even if an attacker has obtained user names and passwords, they are of very little use beyond the initial breached system. The stolen credentials can’t help them leapfrog from system to system within the environment, and extract sensitive data along the way.”

With enterprise-grade privilege management, an organization can maintain a continuous, up-to-date list of systems and accounts – including administrative logins, service accounts, and application passwords. Privilege management can then ensure that each system has unique, complex and frequently changing passwords. There are no shared credentials that attackers can use to access multiple systems. Disclosed passwords are changed immediately after use, so no one retains knowledge of “password secrets” for the future.

“The key to privilege management is the ability to automatically discover and remediate security breaches before cyber attackers can exploit them,” Lieberman said.

The Lieberman Software Solution Lieberman Software’s Enterprise Random Password Manager™ (ERPM) is a privilege management platform with proven privileged identity management functionality that automatically detects, secures and audits privileged accounts throughout the cross-platform enterprise, both on-premises and in the cloud. It ensures that privileged identities are only available on a temporary, delegated basis to prevent unauthorized and anonymous access to systems with sensitive data.

ERPM was recently enhanced with a new privileged access management module that provides authorized users with automated access to corporate applications – whether on-premises, in the cloud or third-party - without disclosing passwords. Elevated operations performed by users are automatically recorded and audited. Users are granted quick and full access to the business applications they need to perform their job roles. However, privileged credentials that manage access to the applications are never known to users, and cannot be accessed without triggering an audit trail.

About Lieberman Software Corporation Lieberman Software provides award-winning privilege management products to more than 1200 enterprise customers worldwide, including nearly half of the Fortune 50. By automatically locating, securing and continuously auditing privileged identities, both on-premises and in the cloud, Lieberman Software helps protect access to systems with sensitive data, thereby reducing internal and external security vulnerabilities, improving IT productivity and helping ensure regulatory compliance. The company developed the first solution for the privilege management space, and its products, including Enterprise Random Password Manager (ERPM), continue to lead the market. Lieberman Software also provides a mature line of Windows security management tools. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, with offices and channel partners located around the world. For more information, visit www.liebsoft.com.

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